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2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Moda.)

H. BROWN.

INDEX.

Patented 00t.6, 1891.

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2 Sheets-Sheet 2. H. BROWN.

(No Model.) I

INDEX.

Patented Oct. 6, 1'891.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HIRAMBROVN,` OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

INDEX.

SPECIFICATION forming' part of Letters Pater-1t No. 460,700, dated October 6, 189.1.

(No model.)

To all whom it may concern,.-

Beit known that I, HIRAM BROWN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Indexes, of which the follow` ing is a specification.

l-Ieretofore abstractors records have ordinarily been of an elaborate character, containing a brief abstract of all conveyances and records affecting the title to property in the county for which they are made, and the labor of preparing such records and the consequent oost thereof has been very great, because of which considerable capital has been required to establish a business of this kind.

The object of my said invention is to provide an index of the county and court records of conveyances and other transactions affecting the title of property which, while being full and complete, shall at the same time be simple and of such a nature that it. can be provided at a small' cost of both time and money, and one-from which the work of abstracting can be done rapidly and at the same time more com plete-ly and reliably than from the records and by the method heretofore employed, as will be hereinafter more particu# larly described and claimed. I accomplish this obj ect by providing an index, preferably in book form, on each page of which is representeda plat of one section or other divisional tract of the county the records of which are to berindexed, showing the various subdivisions thereof and having indorsed on each subdivision a reference to each record and its page or pages where may be found any conveyance or other transaction in any way affecting the title to that piece of property.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, which are made apart hereof, and on which similar letters of reference indicate similar parts, vFigure 1 represents one of my indexes open, showing two opposite pages thereof, on each of which a section is represented; and Fig. 2 is a similar view also showing the plats ot two sections, but differently subdivided.

Referring to Fig. l and the page of the index there represented, numbered l0, an ordinary plat of a section showing the governmental subdivisions into quarters and quarter-quarters is illustrated, and reference is made on each subdivision to the records wherein are recorded the conveyances and other transactions affecting' its title. For example, in the northwest one-fourth of the northwest quarter the lirst entryindicat-es at a glance that the record of the original entry of the grou nd by the party who acquired it from the Government will be found on page b of the entry-book, which in manyStates is one of the county records, that the next conveyance aff fecting the title will be found on page ll of record-book A in the recorder-s office, the next conveyance on page 146 of record-book B,the next. conveyance on page 237 of recordbook P, and the next on page 154 of recordbook 2l. 'lhecharacters used to designate the record-book in all cases will, of course, be the characters adopted in the county for which the index is made. In some counties the records are lettered. In other counties they are numbered. In other counties the first records were lettered until the alphabet was exhausted, and then the system of numbering was commenced, this system being indicated on the subdivision above referred to. Be-

'sides the records in the recorders oflce or the regular county records there are a variety of other records which sometimes lcontain the record of transactions affecting the title to a piece of property, such as county and probate court records, dac.; also, in many counties the records of mortgages are made in books separate from the records of deeds, and in all such cases it is necessary to adopt a designating character for each of such records. In the subdivision above referred to this idea is illustrated, the character c being used to indicate the mortgage records and the character 0 being used to indicate probate `records. These characters are used because they can be convenient-ly represented herein; but for the purposes of the invention, as willbe readily understood, they may be any arbitrary characters desired so long as they are uniformly used to indicate the same record. Thus 2X 17 indicates that ou page 17 of mortgage record No. 2 will be found the record of a mortgage affecting the title to this subdivision of ground, and 7046 indicates that on page 46 of probate record No. 7 will be found a record ot a proceeding in this court affecting its title. Proceedings of cir- ICO cuit courts, willich are ordinarily tiled away in file-boxes numbered with the number of the case, can bc referred to by that case-number in the same mannei'as, for instance, on page 11 of the index represented in Fig. 1, the ditch represented as running through one corner of the northwest quarter of said section was opened by order of the circuit court of the county made in case No. 2,541, and this fact appears by the indorsement alongside the lines representing the ditch. lThe proceedings showing the origin of the free gravel road running through the south half ot' said section can be found on page 86 of the taxduplicates of gravel roads for the cou nty, as appears by the indorsement alongside the linesrepresenting said road. The system is applicable to plats of ground of any shape, whether regular, as lshown on page 10, or whether irregular, as shown on page 11 of Fig. 1. In the northeast quarter of the section represented on page 11 an irregularshaped piece of ground is represented, and the various records of transactions affecting the title thereof are indexed thereon the saine-asin the regular subdivision on page 10, as above explained, as are also the reference to records atfecting the title to the various other irregular plats which appear in this section.

Referring' to Fig. 2, on page numbered 2O of the index there represented, is illustrated the application of this system of indexing to the subdivisions of tracts of land or portions of sections into town lots. In the upper righthand corner of the page the whole section is represented, and that portion of it which is subdivided as the town of Amboy is out lined. Then below appears the subdivision or a portion of it. A For the title to any lot, first, reference would be had to the original plat of the section, which would give the index to the records of the title down to the time of the subdivision, and then reference would be had to the subdivision, Where would be found on the plat of each lot reference tothe record and page where could be found the oliicial record of each conveyance or transaction affecting the title thereto since the subdivision. On page 21 is indicated a section of ground a portion of which has been platted as a town, the record ot the transactions at'- feeting its title being here indexed down to the time of the platting, and' then reference .made thereon to the page ot the index where 5 5 said plat can be found-as, for instance, a plat such as represented on page 20. This town, as represented on page 21, occupies a portion of both the northeast and southeast quarters of thesection, dividing said section in parts, the record of the partitions being indexed, as on page 216 of the surveyors recordbook No. 1, as appears indorsed alongside the partitionline.

Sometimes the owner of several lots or pieces of ground gives a general deed or mortgage as to all of the property held by him in the county. Such transactions may be indexed as on the bottom of page l0.

These various views are represented and explained sim ply to show the comprehensiveness of this system ofindexing and how it can be applied and used with any and all varieties ot subdivisions and records to furnish the abstractor with acomplete index to every trans action, whether a conveyance, court j udgvment, decree, or order, or whatever else might in any manner atlect the title to the piece of property which he is called upon to furnish an abstract of title to.

It will be readily understood that such an index can be quickly prepared for a county and at but comparatively little cost, while at the same time it is the most complete of any that can be made and the one the easiest to keep up to date, as it requires but a few minutes work each day to index all transactions affecting titles to property, while by the old method the labor of keeping up abstractors records, even after they are prepared, is very great and expensive. l

An abstractor being provided withan index of the county records made in accordance with my invention and heilig called upon to furnish an abstract to the title of any piece of property, he turns to the plat of that .l piece of property in the index and quickly transcribes upon a blotter the names ot the records and pages thereof which he finds in dorsed thereon, and then goes to the recordoiiice and referring to those records and pages quickly obtains the needed information direct from the oilicial records themselves,which, being made at the time the information is needed, is usually made with more care and is more reliable and less liable to be erroneous than when made from abstractors records,whch are oftentimes prepared from data collected by inexperienced clerks in a careless and imperfect way,and always have to be verified after the abstract is prepared when the abstractor'exercises due care and caution.

Having thus fully described my said invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

An abstractors index of title-records, consisting of a book having plats ot the sections or divisions of Vland represented upon its pages, and a reference entered on each division to the book and the page thereof where may be found the record of transactions at'- fecting its title, substantially as set t'orth.

In witness whereof I have hereuntosetmy hand and seal, at Indianapolis, Indiana, this 6th day of September, A. D. 1890.

IIIRAM BRO\VN. [L s] Nllitnesses:

E. W. BRADFORD, FRANK W. Woon.

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